RALEIGH, N.C.  The NHL draft is in town, and with it skating clinics, concerts, autograph opportunities and whatever other hoopla the league can muster to build its diminutive fan base.

But all the buzz can't drown out the lingering question of whether, come fall, there will be any games to watch.

The collective bargaining agreement between the league and the NHL Players' Association expires Sept. 15. With the sides at loggerheads over a system for negotiating player salaries and no talks scheduled, chances are good that the season won't begin on schedule — if it starts at all.

For now, owners, players and prospects must carry on with the calendar on the assumption that things will resolve themselves.

"We're optimistic something will get worked out," Carolina Hurricanes spokesman Mike Sundheim said Thursday as six of the draft's top prospects helped run a clinic for young local players. "We're not even thinking about it like that."

The simmering dispute was of little interest to 200 or so fans at the clinic, the first of a weekend's worth of draft-related events, as they watched the kids skate with draftees and veterans who included former Carolina captain Ron Francis, current Hurricanes forward Erik Cole and retired player Willie O'Ree.

"They've got to go along with business as usual," said Eric Watkins of Richmond, Va., a Washington Capitals fan who came to see Alexander Ovechkin, the Russian the Capitals are expected to make the top pick on Saturday. "They can't stop the draft."

Later Thursday, prospects were to take batting practice and get introduced before a Durham Bulls minor league baseball game. Friday, general managers were to meet to talk about possible rules changes and prospects were to meet with reporters — all preludes to the draft Saturday and Sunday at the RBC Center.

But labor concerns were uppermost on the mind — and forehead — of Cole, who topped his team-logo warmup with an NHLPA baseball cap.

"You won't see me this weekend without something of the NHLPA's on," he said.

The NHL's last lockout, which wiped out the first half of the 1994-95 season came with hockey interest on the rise, following a thrilling Stanley Cup run by the New York Rangers.

A decade later, the sport is at a low ebb. U.S. television ratings for this year's championship series, between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Calgary Flames, were miniscule, scoring has plummeted and many feel the league has overexpanded.

Owners say they cannot go on under the current economic system, in which the league says player salaries eat up 75% of operating revenues. The league claims operating losses of more than $1.5 billion over the last decade.

Cole, who just finished his third NHL season, expects the labor dispute to last through the fall and possibly as long as 18 months. Players were warned to prepare themselves financially for a long work stoppage, he said, and he's done that.

With his wife expecting their second child in early August, Cole said he won't consider playing elsewhere any earlier than January. If the work stoppage goes longer than that, he'll consider playing in Europe. And if the league collapses as a result of a prolonged labor fight, he's willing to stay overseas through the end of his career, he said.

The options are less clear for players like Francis, who is near the end of a long career spent mostly with the Hurricanes franchise. During the 1994-95 lockout, Francis took the opportunity to spend time with his family.

This year, as the Hurricanes limped to the end of the season, he accepted a deadline trade to the Toronto Maple Leafs. The move was widely viewed as his last shot at another Stanley Cup, but the Leafs went out in the second round of the playoffs.

Francis said he still hasn't decided whether he'll retire or how the labor situation will influence his decision.

"You have to make a decision based on what your priorities are at the time," he said.

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